MANAGER Brian Little rued Tranmere's luck and declined to criticise his team's performance after a 1-0 home defeat to Bristol City at Prenton Park last night.

MANAGER Brian Little rued Tranmere's luck and declined to criticise his team's performance after a 1-0 home defeat to Bristol City at Prenton Park last night.

Tranmere were frustrated by a succession of near misses and some resolute Bristol defending to lose to a 12th-minute goal by Leroy Lita. Little (left) said: "I am convinced we were unlucky not to get something out of the game tonight.

"I'm not looking for excuses. We matched them tonight. They won because they took one of their chances and we did not take any of ours.

"I don't think it was a case of bad misses on our part, we were just a bit unlucky in front of goal. There were a few bits and pieces. We had one or two efforts knocked off the line, a couple of free headers and a penalty appeal."

The penalty incident occurred on 78 minutes when left wing back Gareth Roberts' cross appeared to strike the arm of a redshirted City defender. Little watched the incident re-run on a video replay and declared: "It could have been given. If the ball had not hit the defender's hand, it would have run to Ryan Taylor. When the incident happened, I asked the referee about it and he said 'yes, it hit him on the hand'.

"So it seems a little bit of a strange decision. But these things happen. We have not lost many at home and this wasn't the night to lose but we've got to bounce back."

Both Little and City player-manager Brian Tinnion went into the game deploying three centrebacks. Little said: "The way the game was set up I did not think there would be a lot of goals. It was a competitive game. I can't be critical of our players because they worked so hard."

Tranmere were caught cold by Lita's early strike. Little said: "The lad did well although I would think our goalkeeper Russell Howarth will believe he could have done better with the shot. It bounced under him and they are sometimes awkward for keepers to save."